(1902, Telavi – 1984, Tbilisi)
Art Historian, Prof. Dr. (1972), Honoured Scientist of Georgia (1978). In 1925 she graduated from the Tbilisi State University, Faculty of History. Since 1941, all her life, she worked at the Institute of History of Georgian Art; in 1972-1984 she was Head of the Minor Arts Department.
For decades S. Barnaveli studied sygelions and literary sources, especially the so called trousseau books, as sources bearing evidence of the material culture. Major sphere of her research was minor plastics, namely glyptics. In her works she examined unique samples of the Georgian glyptics, based on the stylistic analysis and vast historical context, she presented an interesting overall picture of development of this important branch of the Georgian art. She had studied and published old Georgian historic documentation linked with the history of construction in Georgia.